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About 3 weeks ago, I wrote a post about Robert Zubrin‘s book Entering Space. My full review (although admittedly kinda terse) went up today on the I Smell Sheep review blog. It was a pretty good read… and added a lot of insight into what the history/mythology of the Project: Mars setting.

Even though, this book was written *AFTER* the book I’m currently reading… I am glad that I picked up the books in the order that I did. A Case for Mars is a far more in depth (not to mention thicker) book than Entering Space and it concentrates heavily on the early settlement of the Red Planet.

One of the most interesting bits that I hadn’t considered as far as my podcast concept goes… is, Mars is likely to be over 100 years into a terraforming process.

In a LOT of science fiction, we constantly hear about terraforming being a process that takes centuries. According to this book, a huge chunk of the process of converting Mars into something habitable by Earth life could take place in as little as 50 years. By the time of the podcast, Mars’s atmosphere will be about the same as Earth’s as far as temperature and pressure go; though still unbreathable to humans. (We’ll have to walk around with breathing aparati). That’s pretty amazing… No need for pressure suits… that’s HUGE.

Once I’m done with this reading, I’ve got to look over some of the most recent findings about the planet… specifically around underground water. A location near or on top of a large underground water table will be the best spot for a settlement… and once I have a location, well… then the fun begins

It was clear to me from the inception of Project: Mars that I’d need to do a lot of research. In order to get down into the nitty gritty of what I want to write/record/produce, I need to come up with a mythology for the world I’m about to create; ostensibly the world we as a race will create in about 150 to 200 years.

My goal with reading this is to understand the problems of current space flight so that I can come up with a plausible history. Whatever humble beginnings lead to colonization of Mars will dramatically affect the culture there.

At about 50 pages into the book, I’m very impressed with the technical details and frank opinions expressed by the author, Robert Zubrin. While I get that there are far more complex issues involved with manned space flight than I’ll ever fully understand… I think that this book will provide me with what I need to spin a story about early mars habitation and the pioneers who dared to have the right stuff to do it.

When I’m done, I’ll have a full review of the book over at I Smell Sheep at some point. Look out for it!